Ex-charity CEO faces charges

Allegations include tax fraud, larceny, money laundering, conspiracy

Associated Press

Published 9:42 pm, Tuesday, September 24, 2013

New York

The former CEO of a prominent New York City charity, who apologized when he was fired for what he called "mistakes," was charged Tuesday in a decades-long, $5 million scheme that involved overcharging the organization for insurance and making illegal campaign contributions.

Schneiderman said Rapfogel directed a co-conspirator at insurance company Century Coverage Corp. to use money pocketed from the scam to make political donations to candidates and political groups for the charity. Candidates for New York City, state, and federal offices received campaign contributions of tens of thousands of dollars from the insurance company owners and employees, Schneiderman said.

He said the campaign contributions were illegal and said they dated to the 1990s. The donations were often divided into smaller contributions to take advantage of the city's campaign financing system, which provides 6-to-1 matches of smaller donations with public funds, court records stated.

The candidates and political organizations weren't named in court papers.

Rapfogel entered no plea to the charges, which is common at this stage of such a case, and was expected to be free on $300,000 bond.